


Fireside conversation

by SharpestRose



Category: The Secret Garden
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-08
Updated: 2011-07-08
Packaged: 2017-10-21 03:39:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The next-to-smallest one, Dickon, he's got a beautiful burbling laugh, and he sat on my knee as meek as a church mouse even though we'd never been introduced before. He was patting at my waist and I truly think he knew that there was another small person inside there, it was as if he was saying 'all right, you, come out and play with me, rise and shine'."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fireside conversation

Lily Craven was Mrs Lily to everyone but her husband, just as he was Archibald to all save her. Archie and Lilias seemed two entirely seperate creatures, for Archie and Lilias were creatures of laughter and joy and knees covered in dirt from planting and weeding. Archibald and Mrs Lily lived in a big house that was cheerful in a heavy expensive sort of way, but they brought the clean gorse-scented sunshine indoors with them every time that Mrs Lily laughed and said 'oh, _Archie_ ', and each occasion that Archibald brought his Lilias exotic seeds back from places far away.

One late afternoon, as the gardens outside were watered by fat droplets of spring rain, Mrs Lily and Archibald sat together by the glow of the fire and felt extremely contented indeed.

"I went out to Susan Sowerby's cottage this afternoon, while you were in Thwaite seeing your cousin. Five children, she has, and I'm inclined to think she and her husband aren't even halfway done. I _do_ like to see them, Archie, they're all so cheerful and scrubbed and nice looking. Sometimes I fancy that they're what flowers would look like if flowers decided to be born as people. The next-to-smallest one, Dickon, he's got a beautiful burbling laugh, and he sat on my knee as meek as a church mouse even though we'd never been introduced before. He was patting at my waist and I truly think he knew that there was another small person inside there, it was as if he was saying 'all right, you, come out and play with me, rise and shine'. Susan says that the lad's touched by something outside the world, so perhaps he _did_ know that I'm going to have a baby."

"Perhaps they'll be chums, if ours is a boy," Archibald answered indulgently. He was always indulgent with his Lilias, and his sharp, sad eyes glittered with the joy of her whenever she was near.

"Or sweethearts, if it's a girl," Mrs Lily replied, patting the small round bump that had only recently begun to disturb the hang of her dresses. "Susan's oldest has such a mouth on her, she chatters away to the air around her if there's nobody else nearby to talk to. I gave her a skipping rope, the little girl is six years old and I fancy that she's never had a toy given to just her without it having been somebody else's first. I know it's dreadful, Archie, but sometimes I almost wish we were poor, because it seems like such a jolly life. Not _comfortable_ , of course, and sadder than ours are, perhaps, but they seem so gay despite the hardship. I hope our baby gets as much joy from her first skipping rope as I saw from little Martha Sowerby today."

"Poor mite's got one parent wishing 'be a girl', and the other chanting 'be a boy'!" Archibald laughed. "I wonder who it's going to heed?"

"You're a more forceful negotiator than I am." Mrs Lily's tone was factual. "So this one shall turn out to be a boy. And I'll be outnumbered, until a year or two passes and our boy gets a sister to even the teams."

Archibald kissed Mrs Lily softly, because he was always a bit afraid that she was a very real-appearing dream and would melt away into air if he wasn't always soft with her.

"I got a letter from my brother today, he's married and expecting a child of his own before the new year. Fancy not writing to tell me he'd met a sweetheart in the first place! You men never remember the important things, your heads are too full of business and education."

"Seems there are babies blooming all over the world," Archibald said.

"Yes, it does rather, doesn't it? Babies are _so_ lovely, and before too long we'll be watching ours take their first wobbly steps up and down the paths of our garden. The time will rush past before we know it. We'll have to have my people come to stay in a few years, Archie, so that our children can meet their cousin. Cousins, probably, for I think Susan Sowerby is right when she says that no woman wants to stop once they've got that first bundle in their arms. Oh, oh, I can't _wait_ for our little one, I simply can't."

"Autumn's not so far, dearest. Let our son grow for a while longer yet."

Mrs Lily smiled at her Archibald. "I _do_ love you."

Archibald drew her close against him, and covered her hand with his atop her belly.

"What else did you do today? I hate the days when I have to be away from you, especially when it's to be with that tiresome cousin of mine. He sniffs as if something smelt foul all the time."

"I spent a long time out on the moor, just being happy without doing very much. And I talked to Ben. He's as funny and dear as the Sowerbys, he really is."

"It's a wonder that he doesn't have a brood of his own."

"Not such a wonder." Mrs Lily turned her face up and smiled a secret sort of smile. "He's... well, he was a sailor when he was young, if that serves as an explination. Not that all sailors are, well, such sorts, but Ben certainly is."

"You're having me on, Lilias."

"Truly, I'm not! If you'd ever seen him and Martin the gate-keeper bicker and fight you wouldn't doubt my word, let me assure you."

Archibald laughed. "You are a wonder, my lovely girl, you really are. You see the things nobody else would spot in a thousand years."

"I think little Dickon will be much the same, when he's older. Seeing things, spotting the stuff nobody thinks to notice. His eyes look so old in such a little baby. I _do_ wish we could have a little girl, and she could grow up and fall in love with that queer sprite of a boy."

"If we have a boy after all your daydreaming of romances with the Sowerby boy, he'll end up like Weatherstaff."

Mrs Lily giggled and laughed at that, slapping Archibald's hand as if to scold him. "Archie! You _are_ wicked!" She paused in thought. "Isn't it strange that we haven't even thought of that, though? I mean, I know you worry that the baby is going to grow up with a lump on its shoulders, and I sometimes fret that they're doomed to inherit the weak constitution of my family. But we've never stopped and worried that the baby's going to have awkward things like that happen."

"Well, it's not the first concern that springs to mind, no, and I don't see any reason to think it might be a possibility at all," Archibald pointed out. "But don't furrow your forehead like that, Lilias. We both know what it is to fall in love with someone that nobody thinks you should be falling in love with. We'll love our little ones just the same no matter if they grow into oak trees or pansies."

" _Archie!_ " Mrs Lily nearly fell off the couch with laughter. "I should write down all the clever, naughty things you say, for you say so many of them."

"Then you are the muse that inspires my wit, beloved."

Mrs Lily smiled at that, and rested against Archibald in silence for a while. "Shall we visit India some day, Archie? Sometimes I fancy I can smell spices on the letters from my brother. Being born in a land like that, his child is going to be touched with magic for certain. Like Dickon is, maybe. Strange, exotic magic. Isn't 'exotic' a lovely word? Will our baby be exotic, Archie?"

"He'll have to be, to keep up with his Sowerby and Lennox playmates. But come, dear, it's late, the baby and you and I should all get some sleep, and dream of all the tomorrows we shall have together in the garden."

"Yes." Mrs Lily's gaze was fixed on the embers of the fire. "You go on, I'll be in in a moment."

"Don't sit daydreaming into the night, Lilias. Come to bed."

"All right." She took his offered hand and stood up. "Archie, I feel so... what's that word I heard Ben use today? Oh, yes. I feel so _wick_ , Archie. Like I shall live forever and ever, and you with me."

"Then we shall do just that, my dear."


End file.
